Canadian Monument ¨The Canadian National Vimy Memorial¨ at Vimy Ridge in France, built from the Croatian stone quarry in Seget
The Canadian Memorial at Vimy Ridge in France is the largest international monument dedicated to the Canadians who fought in the First World War (April 1917). It was built with stone taken from a quarry near Trogir, Croatia. A three year restoration of the monument was completed and re-opened on April 9th, 2007 to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge.
In the search of the best suitable stone for the monument, Canadian sculptor Walter Allward discovered the light colored stone at a site in Seget, Croatia that was taken to build the third century Diocletian Palace. The quarry used by the Romans had the best quality of stone that had proven to withstand the “test of Time'”. However, the sculptor Allward decided to dig a second quarry out of respect for historical archeology, respect for the integrity of the quarry and respect for the Croatian cultural heritage site, as did the team of Canadian restorers for the monument. Aware of the significant ties between the location of the quarry and the monument in Vimy, the owner of the quarry in Seget agreed to open the new quarry on the same slope of Seget stone needed for the restoration of the monument. During the last two years half of the original stone blocs from the Vimy monument have been replaced with the new original Segat stone.
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